Apparatus and pattern card for knitting machines



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

P. P. OLSSON.

GDUNTING APPARATUS AND PATTERN CARD FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

Patented Sept..28, 1886.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. P. P. OLSSON.

COUNTING APPARATUS AND PATTERN CARD FOR KNITTING MACHINES. No. 350,013. Patented Sept. Z8, 1886.

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UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICEQ PER PERSSON OLSSON, OF TRELLEBORG, SXVEDEN.

COUNTING APPARATUS AND PATTERN-CARD FOR KNITTlNG-MACHlNES.

IPECZ'PICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 350,013, dated September 28, 1886.

Application tiled OrlohcrQS, 1855.

T0 (LZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that 1', Pan lnussos OLssON, merchant, acitizen oftheKingdom of Sweden, and a resident of the city of Trelleborg, in the Kingdom of Sweden, have invented new and useful Improvements in Counting Apparatus and Pattern-Cards for Knitting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

XVork that is made on lmitting-machincs must always obtain its proper shape in the machine itself and cannot be changed afterward.

In operating and working a knitting-machine a great deal of timeis consumed in counting how many needles to put in the work, how many narrowings and widenings are to be made, and how many turns are to be knitted between each narrowing or widening in order to get each garment to fit if knitted in several parts. Such calculation requires a great deal of time-in fact requires more time than is actually consumed in doing the work of knitting. It is also so difficult that only few of those working on knitting machines are able to do it. Others will do the knitting at random, undoingthe work and reknitting it until the desired shape is obtained, and as a consequence it often happens in such cases that the thread is partially worn off when the work is completed.

, Knitting-machines generally are provided with a calculating device that counts to one hundred turns when the machine or its crank is turned round. On plain knitted goods this calculator may be of some, however not great, use. In most kinds of .knitti ngitis preferable not to turn the crank round, but to turn it alternately forward and backward over the machine, and in such case the ordinary calculator is of no use whatever. Even if such calculator were applied for counting all kinds ofknitting, it would only be of some use in a machine on knitting requiring no changes, howeversmall, and as such work does not constitute more than about one per cent. of the work produced on knitting-machines it will be easily understood of how slight practical value the ordinary calculator is.

My improved calculating apparatus, with its separate pattern-cards. saves the operator from doing any calculations before the beginning of the work, and also renders unnecessary Serial X0. 180,763. (Yo model.)

any calculation during the progress of the work.

Another advantage of my invention is, that if, during the progress of the work, it should be necessary for the operator to leave it, it may instantly be perceived where the work was left off. There is therefore no need of re counting the knitted portion, as otherwise is often the case if the number of turns made on the machine have been forgotten by the op erator.

By applying my improved calculating apparatus to a k nitting'machine any person are quainted with the mechanism of a knittingmachine can in a few hourslearn how to make all kinds of work that can be produced in a knittingmachine.

The apparatus together with a corresponding pattern is shown in the accompanying drawings,where Figure 1 shows the apparatus seen from the top as applied to a knittingmachine. Fig. 2 represents a front elevation of the same with the crank and sliding table removed. Fig. 3 represents a section on the line 1 1 in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4. represents a portion of the mechanism as seen from its under side.

Similar letters refer to similar parts wherever they occur on the different parts of the drawings.

The apparatus is secured by means of screws to the place usually occupied by calculating devices.

A. is a little table supporting the patterir card 0. Under the table A is supported a screw, 13, having two threads crossing each other in opposite directions and united together at the ends of said screw. Said screw B is provided at one end with a knob or wheel, 0, by means of which it may be turned around its .axis, and to its opposite end is secured a ratchet-wheel, D.

F is a sliding rod adapted to move forward and back in guides on the table A. One end of said rod F is provided with abutton or projection, G, and to its other end is hinged the pawl H, the forward free end of which engages in the teeth on the ratchet-wheel 1), that is secured to one end of the screw 13. If

so desired, a counter-pawl may be used in ad dition to pawl H, so as to prevent the ratchetwheel 1) from turning when the pawl H and rod F draw backward. Suitable springs, L and M, serve for the purpose of respectivelydrawing back the rod F and to hold pawl H in cont-actwith the ratchet-wheel D, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Above the screwB is madein the table A a slot, 0, serving as a guide for the movable block P, that is provided in its lower end with a movable tooth, Q, shaped so as to fit the curvatures of the threads on the screw B, by which arrangement the block P is caused to travel forward and back-in the slot as the screw 13 is revolved. WV hen the block P is moved to the limit of its stroke in one direction, the tooth Q will enter the op posing thread on screw B,and by rotating the latter in one direction it will be seen that a reciprocatory movement is imparted to block P. Above the table A the block P is provided with an arm, R, provided with a longitudinal groove, in which a rack, S, can be moved forward and backward. The rack S is constantly drawn to one end of said longitudinal and Y, for the purpose of moving the rack S backward in its groove just before the block P reaches the end of its stroke in either direction, after which the spiralspring T returns the rack S to its original position.

'and Y effect a longitudinal movement of the Such motion has for its object to cause the rack S (with one of its teeth) to actuate the pawl Z of a little block, A, movable on the arm R. The block A is by this means moved forward a tooth length of the rack LS ibrevery time the block P reciprocates. Thus it will be seen that at each reciprocation of the block P upon the scale V, the blocks X rack S in one direction, the spring T throwing it in the other direction. By this means thev block A, carrying the indicator A", is moved a single tooth upon the rack S each time the block P travels from one end of the scale V to the other end. The indicator or pointer A follows a line on the pattern-card Oduring the longitudinal motion of the block P to the right or left, and just'before the'motion of the block P is reversed the block A and its pointer A are moved on the arm R toward the bl'ock'P a distance equal to the longitudinal spaces on card vO.

On the sliding frame B of the knitting-machine issecured a piece, A, curved at its opposite ends, as shownin Fig.1, in the form of a duplex inclined plane. This inclined plane passes by the button G on the calculating apparatus during each reciprocatory movement of the sliding frame 13 of the-knitting-machine, by which means the calculating apparatus is operated and the screw B turned each time around its axis equal to the pitch of the teeth on the ratchet-wheel D. The knitted turn is thereby counted.

In making certain kinds of knitted work both needle-carriers operate simultaneously, and consequently two advancements of the block A are made for each knitted turn or seam, and for such work the pattern may easily be made in conformity thereto.

The pattern-card C, Fig. 1, is made as follows: On the upper portion of the card is drawn the forms or figures, C, of the different parts of the garment to be madefor instance, a hunting-j acket. On the pattern is indicated how many needles are required from the beginning in order to get the requisite width of the piece to be knitted. On the same portion of the pattern-card is indicated, on the righthand side thereof, which parts of the garments. are represented by the different patterns and how the knitting-machine is to be adjusted at the beginning of the work. On the lower portion of the pattern-card, which during the operation is placed on the table A, and secured thereto by means of small tacks, borders, or other suitable devices, are drawn parallel lines in length equal to the stroke of the block P and the width of arm R in addition, or about such combined lengths. Such parallel lines are drawn parallel to the screw B, with aspace between such linesequal to the respective spaces on the rack S. The number of teeth on rack S and longitudinal spaces on the pattern-card G are the same.

- In the apparatus shown in the drawings, the pitch of the screwB is made such that the knitting-machine makes one hundred turns or seams while the block P passes from one end to the other of its stroke. turns knitted by the machine can therefore be The number of indicated in hundreds at the ends of the parallel lines 011 the pattern-card. The number of turns between the hundreds are to be indicated on the scaleV by means of the pointer O on the forward. end of rack S. As will be seen the apparatus is adapted to count two thousand knitted turns. the parallel lines on the pattern-card I make signs or marks of different shapes, and on the upper portion of the card I make explanations of the meanings of said characters.

Thus, forinstance, one sign may signify that the working-needles must be reduced with a certain number at one side, another sign that they must be-reduced at the other side, a third sign that the needles must be increased at either side, a fourth sign that some of the adj usting-screws must be readjusted, and a fifth sign that the work is ready. It is evident that the appearance of the particular signs does not matter in the least, if but the significance of each sign or mark is known. It is likewise evident that patterns may be made for any sort of garment, and that each pattern may be made for the same kind of garment, but of different sizes to suit children or adults.

The mode of operating and using the apparatus is as follows: A pattern-card, O, adapted to the garment or part of garment to be Here and there on made is fixed on the table A of the apparatus, and the blocks P and A are adjusted so that the hand A" points on the beginning of the first of the pattern-card. This adjustment is easily effected, for ifthe pawl His pulled down by the finger the screw 13 may be turned by means of knob G in any direction desired. The little block A may at any time be adjusted on the arm R by raising the pawl Z andmoving said block in any direction needed. hand A has thus been placed at zero, as it were, and the screws of the lmitting-machine are duly adjusted, and as many needles taken as indicated on the upper portion of the pattern-card, the work is ready to proceed. At each stroke of the sliding frame Bof the knitting-machine the inclined plane A (secured to frame 13) will pass and actuate the button G on the rod F, by which the pawl H on the latter will cause the ratchet-wheel D to be turned one tooth around its axis, and the screw 13 is also thereby turned a part of a revolution around its axis, causing the pointer O to indicate on the scale V how many turns have been knitted until the number reaches one hundred, when the block P reaches the end of its stroke and is ready to return in an opposite direction. As the block P, however, reaches the end of the scale V, the extremity ot' the rack S engages with the block Y, whereby the rack is moved backward a single tooth underneath the block A and little pawl Z. The subsequent movement of the block P toward the other end of the scale V permits the spring T to restore the rack to its former position, and thereby advances the block It and the indicator A one tooth on the rack, thereby advancing the indicator relatively to the horizontal parallel lines on the pattern-card C. It will thus be seen that during the progress ofthe work the hand or pointer A will. travel in one or the other direction along one after another of the parallel lines of the pattern-card, whereby, and by the aid of the scale V and the pointer O, the number of turns knitted can always be ascertained; but not only that, for every time the hand A arrives to one of the signs on the horizontal lines on the pattern-eard the operator knows that Vhen the v a certain operation has to be performed, where by anybody may easily, and without any previous calculation, knit any garment he likes, ifhe only has the requisite pattern-card.

VYhatI claim as my invention is 1. In a knitting-machine, the combination, witha stationary patterlrcard, C, of an indicator, A a block for carrying said indicator, a rack-bar moving longitudinally on the card, a movable support for said rack, a pawl on the carrying-block engaging with said rack, a spring moving the latter in one direction, blocks at each end of the eard, whereby the rack is moved against the tension of said spring, and a double-threaded screw engaging the rack-support, whereby the rack is carried longitudinally from end to end of the card, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with a stationary pattern-card, G, of a reciprocating indicator, A, a carrying-block, A, having pawl Z, a reciprocating rack, S, blocks X and Y, spring T, reciprocating block P, and screwsl1aft B, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with a stationary pattern-card, 0, provided with scales, parallel lines or marks, signs, or characters, of a reciprocating indicator-block, A, pawl Z, rack S, having pointer 0', scale V. blocks X Y, block P, having arm R, spring T, and screw 13, substantiall y as described.

4. The combination of the slotted table A, sliding frame B, having a n' iection, A, the stationary pattern-card 0, block A, having indicator A and pawl Z, the rack S, having spring T, the reciprocating block 1, having a grooved arm, R, and tooth Q, the screw B, ratchet-wheel D, rod F, having pawl H and button G, the springs L M, and the projections X Y, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention 1 have signed my name, in presence of two witncssesthis 9th day ot September, 1885.

PER PERSSOX OLSSON.

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